dragon2

I did hear a pilot and a TM after a jump they both thought it was lightning as they were jumping right before a big shower, clouds were coming in in the distance. ciel bleu, Saskia

The only differences between the 3030, 3031, 3032 models is the number of step-up rings you get with it. ciel bleu, Saskia

Who's first down here? No time to do much else. BTW I was going downwind (east) but in the specified direction since there wasn't much wind, the other jumper overtook me and ended up going crosswind (south), the rest of the load landed east (agreed direction but downwind), west (upwind, mostly the tandems) and the final guy landed north (no idea why). How the heck do we prevent something like this, and yeah I got bit of a scare. http://www.skydivingmovies.com/ver2/pafiledb.php?action=file&id=7016 ciel bleu, Saskia

Safires generally open soft without doing anything special to them. How many jumps on the lineset? Mine had 700-800 on it's 2nd lineset and started to open HARD, way past time to reline. ciel bleu, Saskia

Got Sony as a sponsor :) Good reason ciel bleu, Saskia

Dust and moisture happen anyway, esp when you're using a zoom lens (you pull in dust when zooming). No biggie, just need to pay close attention to your photos and clean it as soon as you notice any dust. At a quick glance, here are some pics with dust: http://darklow.first.lv/i/f1_3.jpg http://darklow.first.lv/i/f1_7.jpg http://darklow.first.lv/i/f1_8.jpg http://darklow.first.lv/i/i1_1.jpg http://darklow.first.lv/i/rw1_2.jpg http://darklow.first.lv/i/rw1_5.jpg (it shows up easiest on a blue sky background) I'd simply photoshop the blemishes away in this case, looks better on your website About the stabilization, yeah you should turn it off, I'm just concerned that because the sensor CAN move, it will at some point. If it does, your photos will be no good and I'm wondering if you can permanently damage such a camera this way. I don't get why anyone would buy/make a stills camera with the image stabilization in the sensor instead of in the lenses, yeah it's a somewhat cheaper option but mostly it sucks for DSLR's (google for why), and even more so in our case since we don't WANT stabilization/movement. So that's a big reason why I won't recommend anyone jump a camera like this (or heck even buy one for "normal" use), I'm hoping it'll hold up though for you as the pics are really pretty nice. But why didn't you stay with canon? ciel bleu, Saskia

I don't have any? ciel bleu, Saskia

Canopy + slider + links + paperwork if any about said canopy. This goes for both main and reserve canopies. Everything else goes with the rig. If you box it up, LEAVE THE CANOPY ON THE LINKS and connect each link to the right hole on a canopy card if you have one or make your own. Attach the steering lines to the right holes. Daisy chain the lines. ciel bleu, Saskia

Not bad, nice colours. You need to clean your sensor though. Let us know how the camera holds up, if it survives a few hundred jumps or shows any problems - I'd mainly worry about the super steady shot. A tip: I'd strongly advise against looking up at your canopy on deployment, you'll hurt your neck one day and you have a larger chance of lines/risers snagging your helmet. ciel bleu, Saskia

I agree with the dvd burning, saves wear and tear on your camera too. But your HC1 should do slow-mo just fine. ciel bleu, Saskia

Well elsewhere on the planet kids are allowed to do tandem jumps, 10yr olds generally fit our standard harnesses just fine, we've taken younger/smaller too. ciel bleu, Saskia

I did 50 jumps at a wingload of .45, I was fine ciel bleu, Saskia

I had that done on my previous Atom, worked like a charm, better than the other band-aid of putting an elastic band on the buckle. After a while though I got my rigger to punch snaps (what do you call those things, like on your hookknife lanyard) on my legstraps that fixed them good and was easy to get in and out of my rig, though not for anyone else ciel bleu, Saskia

Well there HAVE been people saved by it in the past, if you're one of them I can understand wanting to have one more. I think there's only 2 people in The Netherlands who I ever saw jump a terts, and at least one doesn't do any crw anymore i think. But even people who having been saved by a terts won't always jump one so I guess you're right. ciel bleu, Saskia

It's too early to start looking for gear at 1 jump. You won't be able to jump any gear you buy until you're off the staticline or have finished your AFF. After that you usually use student gear to downsize a bit. At 25-50 jumps (or more, if they have good non-student rental canopies available) most people start looking for gear, by that time you'll have a somewhat clear idea of what you need and want in models and sizing and your instructors will help you choose suitable gear. ciel bleu, Saskia

Sometimes you can feel free to yell though IMO: hey why's there a bit of pink pull-up cord sticking out from under your main flap?!?!?!?!?!?!?! And sometimes it's funny, as the newly licensed jumper loudly complained about the riser covers being open on a crw rig What was funny was that after it was explained to her she KEPT on complaining And it was a very nice crw rig too, no canopies sticking out or nothing ciel bleu, Saskia

http://www.dpreview.com/previews/canon_1000d/ ciel bleu, Saskia

If the laptop runs vista you need a minimum of 2gb RAM, 3 or 4 gb is better. For XP, 2 GB is plenty. You want a real video card so Ati or Nvidia no intel chip crap. An intel dual core processor is (way) better then an AMDx2 but amdx2 will do in a pinch, get an intel x2 if you have the choice (I didn't ). Get an external harddrive for the videofiles. Of course you need a firewire port - my current EUR 1400 laptop didn't come with one, had to add it but you can't always do that! Large screen is nice, I like editing on my old 17" better than on my newer 12" You probably want a DVD burner (some smaller notebooks have no disc drive) Any laptop with above specs will comfortably let you edit and render video. Not as fast (the rendering mainly) as a tricked out pc but still quite alright. ciel bleu, Saskia

I had about 100 video jumps before adding stills. You need to be ready for something new, ie have the video thing down pat. Still camera requires more work and thought than video, you have to be ready for that, free and skilled enough in the sky. A still camera adds: more weight more to balance another battery to worry about another medium (memory card) to worry about way more settings to worry about another thing to turn on/off on time more activity on your part: you have to actively take pics instead of letting the video record whatever you point at more stuff to do in your workflow, you probably need a laptop at the dz, need a cd burner of some kind, if people are waiting for the shots you need to be able to do whatever you want/need to do to them (rotate, select just a few, print some, add a watermark or logo, burn to disc, whatever you want to do) so keep that in mind too, otherwise you'll be spending a lot of evenings sorting through pics and emailing the right pics to the right people, at least that was what I did at first... For me adding stills was mainly a weight problem, i've taken 10's of thousands of pics on the ground so I knew my camera stuff, the settings I want and paying attention to battery levels, available memory etc and framing the shot were all already ingrained. The actively taking pics took longer, first few jumps I came down with 100 pics from one freefall, bite-bite-bite-bite on automatic, that changed to seeing the shot I wanted quickly and after that, anticipating and actively making sure I get the shots I want now. But for me, taking stills is way better than taking video, I started skydiving to photograph skydiving ciel bleu, Saskia

Cuz that's what the cool kids are jumping. Duh. That's certainly part of it, and why a lot of 4way girls I know jump stilettos is beyond me since they only use them to get down for the next jump and never FLY them, seems to me a safire, spectre, pilot etc would be a much smarter choice. However a hp canopy IS more fun to fly, that's why I like flying a (borrowed) vengeance 120 when I don't swoop as such. I did practice turning low and adding some speed on purpose, won't be my favorite sport ever but at least I'm better prepared should I have to turn low or something. Still, my safire and fusion are safer for me and still fun to fly at this size. Personally I find the safer choice cooler ciel bleu, Saskia

Well Willy + any brand AAD + Thailand isn't a very good combination anyway ciel bleu, Saskia

A few (2?) here still do, but since they can cause as many problems as they can solve, ... They jump a flattish pouch sorta like a flag pouch attached with D-rings to their rigs. The pouch holds a real terts,not a true reserve as those are way too big. ciel bleu, Saskia

The Bad Lippspringe Kodiak showed up at Teuge july 8th, I missed it (work) but here's some pics. http://www.paracentrumteuge.nl/images/stories/nieuwspagina/kodiak%202.jpg http://www.paracentrumteuge.nl/images/stories/nieuwspagina/kodiak%201.jpg BTW nice colors ciel bleu, Saskia

AFAIK that vigil WAS turned back on: "wait let me make sure I turned it off" - this from the jumper behind him who had never seen a vigil before and had been at altitude way too long People were fuzzy that descent, how about Henny who grabbed the Argus he was test-jumping out of the backpocket in his rig and showed it to another jumper - "there, it's off now" "But but but you're not supposed to rip your AAD out like that you just have to turn it OFF!!!!!!" I also had a black display on my first Argus. Turned on AAD, put rig on, jumped. For 2nd jump, got boarding call, grabbed packed rig, glanced at AAD, WAIT, I did turn it on this morning, right?!?! Turned it on, self test, off again. WTF? Again, same result. Screw that I grabbed a staff rig and made the jump. This was an Argus I got for free at our Nationals a year before, one of the earlier units, I had to promise the unit would be returned because they want to look at wingsuit jumps. There was a timer built-in for a year, "it went off" a little early so the unit really was turned off luckily for me that first jump. Argus covered my repack and sent me another unit quickly, it was an inconvenience though since I needed 2 rigs that weekend and already had to borrow one, now two. Since then I watch the self test with a lot more interest than I did before ciel bleu, Saskia

I got one for free 2 years ago, been happily jumping it for a few hundred jumps, just bought another one for my 2nd rig. ciel bleu, Saskia